Snowfall, rain, disrupts normal life in north India

New Delhi: Heavy rains and snowfall cut-off Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh from the rest of the country disrupting normal life, even as mercury rose marginally in some parts of north India on Thursday.

In Uttar Pradesh, light to moderate rain, thundershowers occurred at few places over eastern parts and most places over western parts of the state in the past 24 hours.

However, cold conditions eased in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan with minimum temperature rising by a few notches above normal.

Delhiites experienced a cold but clear day today with the minimum temperature recorded at 13.5 degrees Celsius and the during the day maximum was at 20 degree Celsius.

Kashmir remained cut-off from the rest of the country for the second day today with road and air links to the Valley snapped due to snowfall, the heaviest in a decade in the month of January.
The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed for traffic, while no flights operated from the airport here following heavy snowfall yesterday.

At least 10 residential houses were damaged while three persons were injured due to heavy snowfall in Kashmir, a police spokesman said.

Normal life was hit and vehicular traffic disrupted in several parts of Himachal Pradesh as mid and higher hills received moderate snowfall while lower hills had widespread heavy rains.

The high altitude tribal areas and mountain passes had another spell of heavy snowfall while mid and higher reaches had moderate snowfall, causing sharp fall in temperature.

The Hindustan-Tibet National Highway was blocked due to snow beyond Shimla and traffic to Theog, Narkanda, Jubbal, Chopal and Rohroo and Khara-Patthar remained suspended.

It was markedly above normal in Uttar Pradesh`s Faizabad, Agra divisions, appreciably above normal in Gorakhpur, Allahabad, Kanpur and Jhansi divisions, above normal in Lucknow, Meerut divisions and normal in the remaining divisions of the state.
Light rains took place in isolated areas of Rajasthan like Ajmer, Jaipur, Kota and Bharatpur for 24 hours since yesterday, while night temperatures increased slightly in parts of the state, where Mount Abu recorded lowest of 3 degree Celsius followed by Bikaner and Sriganganagar at 8.2 and 8.3 degrees Celsius respectively.

Himachal Pradesh`s Shimla received 10 cm of snow while adjoining resorts of Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda had 15 cm to 30 cm of snow.

Koksar in Lahaul Spiti recorded 65 cm of snow while Kalpa in Kinnaur district received 30 cm of snow and Manali 3 cm.

Union Territory of Chandigarh recorded a minimum of 8.4 deg C, rising by two degrees above normal. Among other places in Punjab, Ludhiana and Patiala recorded minimum of 9.6 deg C and 9.7 deg C, up by three degrees above normal respectively.

In Haryana, Ambala and Karnal had minimum of 9.5 deg C and 9 deg C respectively, up by two degrees above normal. Hisar had a low of 11.6 deg C, which was up by six notches above normal. Narnaul and Bhiwani braved cold weather at 11 deg C and 12.6 deg C.

However, the mercury dropped across the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region last night, with Srinagar recording a low of 0.1 degree Celsius as against 0.2 degree Celsius the previous night, an official of the MET separtment said.

South Kashmir towns of Qazigund and Kokernag recorded the minimum temperatures of minus 2.2 degrees Celsius and minus 5.0 degrees Celsius, respectively.

The mercury in the tourist resort of Pahalgam, also in south Kashmir, plummeted by over nine degrees from the previous night`s low of minus 1.0 degrees Celsius, to settle at a minimum of minus 10.3 degrees Celsius last night.

The famous ski-resort of Gulmarg registered a low of minus 7.6 degrees Celsius as against minus 3.4 degrees Celsius the previous night.